Humana, one of the nation’s largest publicly traded health benefits companies, launched a multi-city tour in October, 2006 explaining its Medicare Advantage supplemental insurance plans to seniors and their families. The program featured a free showing of the classic film “Casablanca” along with a short video, “Changing Lives,” that explained the company’s Medicare services.

The nationwide event took place in nearly 700 movie theaters booked through National CineMedia’s CineMeetings & Events Division. The theaters were located in San Diego, San Francisco, Phoenix, Denver, Chicago, Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Atlanta and hundreds of other cities and towns.

Because more than 600 of these theaters did not, at that time, have digital projection systems, National CineMedia hired CAVCOMM to set up and operate the gear necessary to present the DVD-based program. We put 65 crews on the road and staged over 800 separate presentations, all in a five-week period during October and November, 2006.

“The AV itself was very straightforward,” says CAVCOMM’s president, Michael Canfield. “What was complicated was the logistics. That’s what we’ve become very, very good at: the coordination with the sites, the coordination with all the crews, the coordination with National CineMedia and the representatives of Humana.”

Each CAVCOMM crew carried a projector with a long-throw lens, a DVD player, a pair of Mackie SRM-450 powered loudspeakers, stands, cables and accessories. In most cases the CAVCOMM technicians were able to plug into the theater’s house sound system, but where that was impossible they used the portable loudspeakers. To ensure the quality of service, we set up a command center and required each crew to report upon arrival at the theater, upon completion of the setup and on completion of the day.

“The devil is in the details,” says Canfield, “and I don’t think many AV companies would even think of trying something of this scope. We’re routinely able to provide one-stop shopping for national tours, as we did for Humana."